Checkmate #1

Checkmate #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Illustrated by Alex Maleev

Coloured by David Stewart

Lettered by Josh Reed

Leviathan has agents and acolytes all over the world-but what is the secret behind its power? The planet’s last, best hope to infiltrate Leviathan may be this motley collection of spymasters, now teamed up to try to take back the world that was stolen from under us all! Green Arrow, the Question, Talia al Ghul and other unlikely allies converge to tackle Leviathan as members of the new Checkmate-but who is the surprise hero behind this team? Big clues to the future of the DC Universe start here!

This is one of the more intriguing and interesting series that Brian’s written since coming to DC. Checkmate has always had potential and with Event Leviathan being as good as it was and this is extension of that story is a seamless transition. DC already has the Suicide Squad and with heroes and villains galore populating the world there is a need for a team like Checkmate to keep tabs on them as well as countries that work behind the scenes as they try to manipulate world events in their favour. So seeing this start off with Mark Shaw, whom I am going to guess is once again a split personality, head of Leviathan the world once again needs Checkmate. Though I miss Beatrix de Costa being a part of Checkmate.

I am thoroughly impressed with the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information. The character development that we see is extraordinary thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the reader becomes more and more engaged in the book.

I greatly appreciate the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the book continue to grow, evolve and emerge anew as the encounters dictate. The layers are where we see some amazing characterisation as the group still acclimate to each other. These bits certainly add extra depth and complexity to the story beautifully. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

I love the interiors here. The linework is strong, clean and crisp and how the varying weights and techniques we see utilised to create this marvellous detail work is extraordinary. We see some absolutely wonderful use of backgrounds as they enhance the moments and work within the composition of the panels to bring us this great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The work Alex does here really captures the mood, tone and feel that a story such as this needs and it’s beautiful to see his talent and skill on full display here. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is magnificent. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extremely well rendered. Whatever the technology Mark has in that eye-patch device shows such innovation and creativity and its gorgeously shown wit those blues and greys.

I know this is only a six issue limited series but I’m still excited for this and hopefully we’ll see such a positive response to it that it will end up being an ongoing monthly. The world is a dangerous place and there needs to be a team or organisation in place to do what is deemed to street for the superhero teams like the Justice League. With some absolutely stellar writing, characterisation and sensational interiors Checkmate is back and here’s hoping its not going anywhere anytime soon.